Madalina Cojocari turned 13 on Thursday, and to mark the occasion her community came together to celebrate the young girl who has been missing for 17 months.
The Cornelius Police Department (CPD) continues to search for Madalina and on Thursday hosted the event, which allowed residents to write Madalina a birthday card and send well-wishes.
The last known sighting of Madalina occurred Nov,. 22, 2022, when the student could be seen walking off the school bus on the Monday before Thanksgiving in a security video taken on the bus.
Her mother, Diana Cojocari , later told police she last saw her daughter on Nov. 24 but did not report the girl missing until Dec. 15. That delay resulted in both her and Madalina's stepfather, Christopher Palmite r, being charged with failure to report a missing child.
Diana remains behind bars pending trial, but Palmiter posted bail in August. In the wake of his release, explosive new claims came out after Madalina's grandmother spoke with the press.
"My granddaughter is alive, but she's been kidnapped," Rodica Cojocari told WCNC outside court this past August when Diana and Palmiter appeared before a judge after being charged with failing to report Madalina's disappearance for over three weeks.
Rodica also claimed that Palmiter masterminded the sale of his stepdaughter in her interview with WCNC.
"Chris Palmiter is the instrument," Rodica said. "He stalked them for two years. [They] had no documents in his home. He stole their documents andheld them in the home ... like prisoners."
Rodica also alleged in her interview that Palmiter drugged Madalina and her mother before selling the girl for $5 million.
"Lately, he would use narcotics to make them sleep, both Madalina and Diana," Rodica told WCNC . "He used these narcotics in their juice. Diana and Madalina drank it, and he took Madalina out of the bedroom and gave her over to traffickers. I don't know to whom."
Both Diana and Palmiter entered pleas of not guilty in court and continue to claim they have no idea where Madalina is or what happened to her after she went missing from the family's North Carolina home back in November.
Rodica told WCNC that she does not think this is true.
"He says he doesn't know anything, but it's not true," said Rodica. "Our Madalina is alive, and Diana was warned that 'if you tell police anything, I will kill you.' Chris knows who he sold our granddaughter to ... but he is involved with criminals."
Rodica also told WCNC that she believes her granddaughter may have undergone plastic surgery to change her physical appearance, thus making it harder for law enforcement to find the girl.
Palmiter and his lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
The search for Madalina has spanned across all of North Carolina.
A month after her disappearance, efforts moved from Madalina's home toMadison County , a densely forested but sparsely populated area deep in the Appalachian Mountains.
Police moved searchefforts to thisremote and rugged section of western North Carolina after reports of Diana's car being sighted in the area , and began the process of reaching out to the community to ask ifany residentshad seen Madalina, her mother, Diana, or Diana's car at the time of the sighting.
Inside Edition Digital learned that multiple residents spoke with investigators and said they spotted Diana's car in the days after Madalina's disappearance.
A photo of Madalina posing at the summit of Mount Mitchell inneighboring Yancey County confirmed that she had at least visited that area of the state before she went missing, which is located three hours from her home in the town of Cornelius.
That search proved fruitless, with investigators failing to find Madalina despite reported sightings of her mother in the area after her disappearance.
The Cornelius Police Department refuses to give up the search however, and in addition to the birthday celebration on Thursday also hosted a group prayer on the anniversary of Madalina's disappearance last November.
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